A big sale — and building businesses — in Detroit

Tech entrepreneur Angel Gambino sold The Alchemy building to Ford Motor Co. for undisclosed sum

She's building social media marketing and mobility startup businesses in Detroit

Angel Gambino: Shopping for new venture.

In 2010, tech entrepreneur Angel Gambino re-engaged with her hometown of Detroit after building a career across the globe at technology, entertainment and social media companies.

With Detroit still reeling from the Great Recession, Gambino ignored the investment advice of others and began buying properties in Corktown, including a derelict factory on Rosa Parks Boulevard that dated to the late 19th century.

"Everyone I talked to in 2010 told me I was absolutely nuts and it would take forever to come around," said Gambino, a former top executive at the UK social media website Bebo. "Everyone told me not to do it. But I believed it was the right thing to do … and I would figure it out."

After nearly eight years of hobbling along with repairs and charging below-market-rate rent, the one-time brass factory and 3 acres Gambino bought at 2051 Rosa Parks Blvd. turned out to be a pretty good speculative bet by the Detroit native.

In July, Gambino sold the building for an undisclosed amount to Ford Motor Co., which plans to tear it down and construct a new 500,000-600,000 square-foot mixed use building that will be part of its Corktown campus.In Corktown, the Dearborn automaker intends to develop self-driving cars and future innovations in the mobility of people and goods.

Gambino, 46, was born in the city and grew up in Roseville. She picked Corktown to buy property because of its "sense of familiarity" for people who might desire to return to Detroit someday.

"Since that's where people grew up going to Tigers games, I thought this might be one of the first places people might go back to," Gambino said in an interview on the Crain's "Detroit Rising" podcast. Those days were "way before there were any of these cool restaurants and bars (in Corktown). ... It was way before Slow's (Bar-B-Q)."

Ford's vision for Corktown is not too far off from the "smart mobility ecosystem" Gambino said the region should create in Detroit's oldest neighborhood during a speech at the 2014 Mackinac Policy Conference.

"I wanted somebody who would be committed to really taking it to the next stage," Gambino said of Ford.

Gambino housed her smart mobility firm, called The Alchemists Collective, at 2051 Rosa Parks — known as the The Alchemy building — working for clients such as Castrol and BP on new ventures in mobility technologies to diversify revenue streams for the petroleum companies in an era of increased electrification of vehicles.

She also began building a new social media company, Sensai, which uses artificial intelligence to help companies boost their traction on social media marketing.

"Sensai is really about creators, nonprofits, small businesses, other entrepreneurs like myself ... helping them to know what to post, when to post, what words to use" on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, Gambino said.

Gambino launched Sensai in May 2017 and the startup touts having high-profile clients like Olympic snowboarder Shaun White, country singer Tim McGraw and former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed.

"We were able to grow (El-Sayed's) socials in such an extraordinary way that he went from an unknown to a very serious competitor to (Democratic nominee) Gretchen Whitmer," Gambino said.

One of Sensai's local clients is fashion model Stefanie Kwiatkowski, creator of an open-toe grippy shoe for yoga and pilates. Kwiatkowski's company, Barre'letixx, has used Sensai to boost online sales of the rubber, injection-molded shoe, which is manufactured in the Grand Rapids area.

"It's like having an angel say, 'No, no, child, don't go down that path, go this way,'" Kwiatkowski said.

Gambino splits her time between homes in Corktown and Grosse Pointe and San Francisco, where Sensai is based. Since selling the Alchemy building to Ford, Gambino has moved her companies into space at WeWork, and she's looking for new office space.

She's currently trying to hire data scientists for Sensai's Detroit team, with plans of growing from four employees in the Motor City to 15 employees over the next 18 months.

Gambino also is shopping for a new real estate venture, hoping to land in the city's next up-and-coming neighborhood.

"I'm looking right now to acquire more commercial and residential real estate in the city, preferably on the east side, where I'm from," she said.